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Hahn Air Base (Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn)

Once a massive air base and home to 13000 people, now a partly abandoned civilian airport – the Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn is kind of a zombie facility in the middle of nowhere, more dead than alive, surrounded by countless abandoned and partly abandoned buildings.
The tax wasting drama began 1951 in Paris, when the occupying French forces decided to build a military airport in the countryside of Rhineland-Palatinate; 100 kilometers west of Frankfurt, Germany. A year later the United States took over and expanded the airfield to the seventh biggest Air Force base in Europe and the second largest in Germany – thanks to the 7356th Air Base Group. In late summer of 1953 the 50th Fighter Bomber Wing was transferred from Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico, and consisted of the 10th Fighter-Bomber, the 81st Fighter-Bomber and the 417th Fighter-Bomber squadrons; the last one being commanded by legendary test pilot Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager. Three years later the 50th Fighter Bomber Wing was transferred to France for safety reasons, the Americans being worried that Warsaw Pact forced could overrun West Germany and get hold of the wing’s nuclear weapons. Over the years many different units / squadrons were stationed at Hahn Air Base, including the 496th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, the 7425th Air Base Group, and the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing. When the Cold War ended, Hahn AB was one of seven major US air bases within 100 kilometers – and the first one to be closed. In 1991 all flying units were inactivated or transferred, and on September 30th 1993 most of Hahn Air Base (consisting of 672 apartments in 43 buildings, 25 barracks, 22 office buildings, 52 repair shops, 51 storage buildings, 343 hangars and bunkers, 23 shops, 5 schools, a hospital consisting of four buildings as well as more than 30 leisure facilities, including a golf course, a football field and a shooting range!) was returned to the German authorities, who had already decided to turn it into a civilian airport.
While current the name of the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is borderline deceit of potential customers (it is located about 100 kilometers away from Frankfurt in another German federal state without a train or direct highway connection), the intentions were good – the remains of Hahn Air Base basically provided everything you needed to run a civilian airport, due to its remote location it came with a night flight permission, and Frankfurt Airport (the real one, 10 kilometers south of Frankfurt) was at its limits anyway. At first named Rhein-Mosel Airport and mostly run by Fraport (the same company responsible for Frankfurt Airport), the former military airport grew quickly from 19k passengers in 1997 to almost 4 million passengers in 2007 – but neither growth nor size means financial success, so Fraport sold its 65% shares to the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate for 1 EUR – and 120 million EUR in debt. In the following years the state tried to consolidate the airport, but passenger numbers dropped significantly to less than 2.5 million in 2014; a rather insignificant number in comparison to Frankfurt Airport’s 59.5 million. Despite losing about 10 million EUR per year and the state’s futile efforts to sell at least parts of its shares to investors, Rhineland-Palatinate keeps Frankfurt-Hahn running and is even investing it its future, reactivating / expanding a decommissioned railroad track by 2018 to make access to the airport more comfortable.

Meanwhile other parts of the former Hahn Air Base became abandoned and started to fall into disrepair. Despite most buildings being used by the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, a police academy, and rented to private companies running a variety of businesses, a lot of them were of no / little commercial value in an area with low population density… especially the barracks / apartment buildings and their parking lots. Some have been demolished to accommodate the needs of the new civilian airport, but quite a few are still standing there, with open fences and barely visible “private property” signs.
Although other facilities in rather close proximity are still in use, most of the abandoned apartment buildings suffered severely from vandalism and consequential damages like mold; not so much externally, but inside – hardly any graffiti, but lots of smashed windows, shelves and fixtures. Some of the buildings have been boarded up after initial damages, but after 20 years of standing around without being used, you can see that whoever is in charge of the former housing area has basically given up on it. A handful of blocks were still in decent condition, but most of them looked like they were beyond repair. A few hundred meters away from the main area of abandonment we found a closed “Ringeltaube” (wood pigeon) shop, right next to and in the same building as the commissary of the Hahn AB. (I didn’t know about them either, but my sister was with the German Air Force for several years and did training at / with Lufthansa – and Ringeltaube is a chain of shops exclusively for Lufthansa employees; food and non-food.)

I guess it’s safe to say (and a bad pun) that the future of the airport Frankfurt-Hahn is up in the air – and so is the future of the remains of Hahn Air Base. Looking at the area on GoogleMaps, it is pretty obvious that the level of abandonment has increased since those satellite photos were taken – and so has the amount of destruction. While there were no signs of active demolition work, some of the apartment buildings still visible online are already missing… and the parking lot in front of the Ringeltaube / commissary is not nearly as busy anymore; it actually went down from several dozen cars to… zero. With that in mind it’s only a matter of time until all visible signs of Hahn Air Base are nothing but a memory, absorbed by Frankfurt-Hahn Airport… and nature. Let’s hope that the airport will survive the current struggle and be profitable soon – the livelihood of hundreds, probably thousands of people depends on it. And there are already enough abandoned airports all over the world… *even one in Frankfurt*!

14 Responses

very cool,it actually look like a pretty nice location,suprised some developer didnt took over these apartment building and sell then,and basically doing another city there,given to you say it had schools and everything too

As recently as August 2015, an announcement was made that Ryan Air (the primary benefactor at Frankfurt-Hahn is pulling out). Apparently, the initial intent by Fraport was to utilize it as an overflow for the cargo traffic. However, when US government rail ceased to exist in Germany, DeutschBahn didn’t pick up maintenance of the railways mentioned in the post. Because of this, and with not having immediate access to a major freeway for LKVs (tractor trailer rigs) and also Frankfurt International’s recent expansion for cargo processing, that left only the meager foot traffic of passengers who drive and park outside the main terminal. So, with little else in the way of commercial development, no immediate replacement for it’s major departing airline partner and a large portion of the grounds in further decay, the likelihood that it will stay around much longer gets dimmer by the day.

I lived at Hahn housing in the early 70s and was back to visit in 2008. Such a shame it was such a beautiful place to live. On our visit back we were able to stay at what was called the InterCity hotel which was the old teachers building across from Housing Bld #22. Could someone please tell me what has happened to that little hotel and if it is still there what is the name? Any updated photos would be appreciated. Thank you.

I was at Hahn from 1969-1973 and the first place I called home since dad was reassigned every 18-24 months. High school only went to 10th grade so I was one of lucky ones that was a Hahn dormie as we lived in a dorm Mon-Fri. I’ve been back to visit several times with 2011 being my last one. It was heartbreaking to see everything falling apart after being so active. Hahn will always hold a very special place in my heart and even after all these years I really miss it.

I was stationed at Hahn AB from August 1990 to August 1993. Hahn AB always looked great as it is AF policy to do so. However, under ground the steam system for heating was in bad shape and looked like a volcanic eruption was going to happen any time when the steam plant first fired up for winter. The base’s phone systems were ancient, the close proximity of all the aircraft TabVees (covered storage) was less than optimal for defense, and again the location made spending more to stay when the US wanted to save money doom Hahn.

Our jets flew off to war to Qatar and never returned. There was the one training squadron of F-16s left minding the store if the Russians wanted to start any trouble – but they had enough of that on their own in Russia at the time. Hahn’s location was a plus and a minus; it was too close to Warsaw Pack aircraft’s reach, it is often overcast to the point of shutting down airfield operations, and the runways aren’t the longest. It was also in a great area to visit the Mosel sites, eat great German food and drink fine wine in many little Mom and Pop restaurants, and the locals were friendly as they appreciated the influx of American money. The 50 TFW shutdown the summer of 1991 but the 50th Air Base Group was there to close the base because of the reduction of US forces in Europe. I left when the Base Supply “account” was closed out and Ramstein AB signed for the few remaining items left on Hahn AB in August 1993. At that time we heard that the base would be turned into a regional airport and about 20 buildings were being passed over to the new owners as is, while we were still shutting down the rest. The irony was new dorms that never used were “pickled” – made ready for long term non-use, and a German firm was still building more TabVee covered aircraft storage buildings as it was still under contract. The builder was the same that built Iraqi revetments we had no trouble destroying in Desert Storm. Good thing we didn’t really count on them.

I have not been back to Hahn AB area since I left but have visited Germany twice – once while the DM was still the currency and later the Euro. Under the euro it got to be too expensive as I think they just changed the prices to euros and pressed on. No more inexpensive bier and brats…… too bad.

Okay more than you wanted to know. I was in Germany on three tours with the US Air Force. I was in Wiesbaden, Kaiserslautern, Zwiebruecken, and at Hahn. Loved them all. What a country, great people, things to see and do, and after a while it can feel like home. Best of luck with the Airport and to all the people in the area that i am sure are depending on it. Tshuss!!

I always enjoy lengthy comments and I read them with great interest – but I decided to step back when it comes to replying to comments on abandoned military bases and instead having the comments section used for you guys to reminiscent and maybe rekindle old friendships. I grew up in Germany, one of my early memories is about an elementary school exchange program between my school and a school of the Benjamin Franklin Village in Mannheim. My dad is a musician who played tons of army clubs in the area during the 70s, so I’m always happy to hear that soldiers deployed to Germany had a great time!

I was stationed at Hahn after being moved from Toul AB in France. I got to France in September 1957 and went to Germany in December 1959. My assignment was as a 462X0 with the 81st FBS/TFS. I went back to the states in May of 1960. Enjoyed my time in France and Germany.